SpaceX Says Ice Buildup May Be to Blame for Botched Rocket Landing at Sea

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Jan. 18, 2016, 7:44 PM GMT / Updated Jan. 18, 2016, 7:44 PM GMT

By Reuters and NBC News

Ice buildup may be to blame for the fiery botched landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at sea on Sunday, the company said.

The rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to put the U.S- and European-owned Jason 3 climate-monitoring satellite into orbit. It then returned to Earth, attempting to land upright on an ocean barge.

Video showed the rocket had descended with pinpoint accuracy onto the drone ship before a landing leg buckled, causing the booster to tip over and explode. The lockout collet on one of the rocket's four legs didn't latch, leading to the mishap, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on Twitter and Instagram.

"Root cause may have been ice buildup due to condensation from heavy fog at liftoff," he said.

Falcon lands on droneship, but the lockout collet doesn't latch on one the four legs, causing it… https://t.co/DpXsRQWal9

The failed landing was a setback for the Hawthorne, California, company's plan to reduce space launch costs by reusing rockets rather than having them fall into the ocean.

A successful ocean landing would have marked a second milestone for the company, a month after it nailed a spaceflight first with a successful ground landing in Florida.

The feat of having the rocket touch down on the tiny platform won accolades from fellow tech entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com chief executive whose Blue Origin space company is pursuing similar technology.

SpaceX wants to be able to land rockets on ocean platforms as well as on the ground to accommodate a wide variety of space missions. It has more than 60 launches on its schedule, worth more than $8 billion.